Sharks rebound with a 6 spot of
their ownSJ beats Stars on Thornton and Pavelski's
strong night

3/15/11 - By Mike Lee -

The Sharks responded to their 6-3 shellacking in
Chicago on Monday night, by putting a 6 spot on the Dallas Stars to take their
own 6-3 decision on Tuesday. San Jose capped their brief back-to-back night
road trip by taking a 4-3 lead down to the wire in Dallas before scoring a pair
of empty-net goal late to knock off their division rivals. Joe Thornton scored
a pair of goals, and Joe Pavelski added four assists to lead San Jose.

Games on back-to-back nights was an excuse primed for the taking, and falling
behind 2-0 on the road made it easy for the Sharks to pack it in. They'd do
exactly the opposite, ripping off four straight goals to grab a nice lead in
the 3rd period before Dallas cut the lead to a single goal late. Niemi buckled
down late, to win his 27th game of the season.

With Los Angeles also
winning on Tuesday night, the Sharks still maintain a slim three point lead in
the Pacific Division.

The opening 20 minutes was lacking any drama or
energy that typically comes with a Sharks - Stars contest. Neither squad looked
inspired as they skated to a 0-0 draw after one period.

The one bright
spot for San Jose was rookie defenseman Justin Braun's play in the period.
Braun replaced Jason Demers, who had a rough night in Chicago 24 hours earlier.
Braun made several stops and was cool as a cucumber. Some of that may have been
attributed to Dallas' lack of fire in the period.

The Dallas Stars
were the benefactors of an egregious non-call early in the 2nd period after
Jamie Lagenbrunner laid out Niklas Wallin with a hit from behind that sent the
Sharks defenseman to the locker room. With Wallin hobbling on the ice, Dallas
took advantage.

Mike Ribeiro converted on the unofficial man-advantage
by carrying the puck around the back of the Sharks net, before circling to the
front and snapping a shot past Antti Niemi. Wallin actually got back to the
net, but he was prevented from getting out to Ribiero by Brendan Morrow,
allowing Ribiero to skate freely.

Loui Eriksson would get knocked out
of the game 30 seconds later after he stretched to tip a puck near his blueline
and was bulldozed by Douglas Murray. Eriksson joined Wallin in the locker room,
but Steve Ott decided to take matters into his own hands by engaging Murray.

That decision would earn the Stars pest an instigator penalty and the
rest of the period off, setting up an opportunity for the Sharks to get back in
the game. Instead, the Sharks power play gagged up the puck and allowed 4th
line centerman Toby Petersen to score his 2nd goal of the season.

Defenseman Dan Boyle wiped out Niemi chasing Jamie Benn behind the net. With
the Sharks netminder scrambling to get back in the net, Benn circled to the
right corner and fed Petersen in the slot for the easy deposit.

San
Jose cut the Stars lead in half more than a minute later when Joe Thornton
deflected a Dan Boyle shot past Kari Lehtonen at 6:23 of the period. Thornton
was cutting through the slot just Boyle unloaded his shot from the left point.

Morrow was sent off for high sticking at 11:07, then Benn would follow
him to the box a minute later for throwing the puck over the glass. San Jose
made the most of this power play, when Dany Heatley deposited his 23rd goal of
the season past Lehtonen off a rebound from the top of the crease.

Joe Pavelski would setup a go-ahead goal for the
Sharks 2 minutes into the 3rd period, after he stripped Jeff Woywitka of the
puck along the Stars end boards. Pavelski then slipped a pass to a cutting
Ryane Clowe in the slot for the one-time chance that beat Lehtonen.

Pavelski would setup another goal 100 seconds later, grabbing a Jamal Mayers
drop pass along the left wing, then making a feed to Torrey Mitchell in the
slot for the redirect goal. Mayers did a nice job to gain possession of the
puck after beating defenseman Niklas Grossman to it near the Stars bench.
Mitchell saw Pavelski grab the pass, so he made a bee-line to the slot where he
converted his 6th goal of the season.

Ott made his return to the ice
and missed a chance to cut into the Sharks lead when his shot from the left
side hit the post.

A hooking penalty to Marleau at 7:04 put the Sharks
hospitable penalty kill on the ice, and they promptly surrendered another goal.
Benn pushed his 20th of the season past Niemi after the Sharks failed to clear
the puck.

Heatley would take a foolish penalty with 4 minutes left in
regulation, taking a shot at Ott with an elbow away from the puck and putting a
fractured penalty-killing unit back on the ice. Logan Couture chipped a
deflection out to Thornton for a breakaway, but Lehtonen stoned the Sharks
captain with a kick save.

The penalty kill held as Heatley's penalty
expired, but Couture sent a puck over the glass to put Dallas right back on the
power play with 2:01 left. Stars head coach Marc Crawford pulled Lehtonen for
the extra attacker, but that would backfire as Thornton sent a shot from the
Sharks zone down the length of the ice for the short-handed empty-netter.

Heatley followed that up with his own short-handed empty-netter 5
seconds later right off the faceoff to ice the game.

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